Charleston Church Mass Murder Suspect Dylann Storm Roof Has been Arrested!

 

Murder victim, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, was pastor of Emanuel AME Church
 


Mug shot of Dylann Storm Roof
 

Church Shooting Suspect Arrested in Shelby, NC
By Tony Santaella
11:38 a.m. EDT June 18, 2015
WLTX & USA TODAY

Richland County, SC (WLTX) - A law enforcement source tells WLTX that the suspect in the mass shooting at a Charleston church has been arrested in Shelby, North Carolina.

The circumstances surrounding the arrest of Dylann Storm Roof, 21, have not been released yet. Shelby is located about an hour drive to the west of Charlotte.

Earlier in day, there was a heavy police presence seen in lower Richland County, South Carolina because Roof grew up in the area and has family here.

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin also told WLTX that Roof has multiple family members in the greater Columbia area.

A Facebook page belonging to a Dylann Roof that matches the picture released by law enforcement said Roof at one time attended White Knoll High School in Lexington County.
 


“In the Facebook photo, Roof is wearing a jacket with patches of the racist-era flags of South Africa and Rhodesia.” [“Racist-era” means when whites ruled, as opposed to now, when their property is being routinely stolen from them, they are forced to hire black imbeciles, and they are being tortured and slaughtered worse than farm animals.]
 

A criminal history report shows Roof was arrested in Lexington County on February 28 of this year on a controlled substance charge, and then again on April 26 on a trespassing offense. Neither of those cases had been adjudicated.

Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen says around 8 p.m. Wednesday, Roof entered the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church near downtown Charleston, where a Bible study was taking place. After spending an hour in the sanctuary, officers say he opened fire, killing nine people--6 females, 3, males.

Three people survived.

Among the dead was the pastor of the church, 41-year-old Clementa Pinckney, who was also a South Carolina state senator. At the South Carolina State House Thursday, a black drape and a red rose were put over his desk. Flags in the state are flying at half-staff because of the tragedy.

Mullen has called the killings a hate crime, and the Justice Department said its Civil Rights Division, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina are opening their own hate crime investigation into the shooting.

"The only reason that someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate," Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said. "It is the most dastardly act that one could possibly imagine, and we will bring that person to justice. ... This is one hateful person."

Prayer vigils are taking place all across South Carolina, including one in Charleston where state leaders, including Governor Nikki Haley, were set to attend.

The Emanuel AME church is a historic [racially segregated] African-American church that traces its roots to 1816, when several churches split from Charleston's Methodist Episcopal church.

One of its founders, Denmark Vesey, tried to organize a slave revolt in 1822. He was caught, and white landowners had his church burned in revenge. Parishioners worshipped underground until after the Civil War.